Search results for "adaptation"

The climatic and genetic heritage of Italian goat breeds with genomic SNP data

2021

Local adaptation of animals to the environment can abruptly become a burden when faced with rapid climatic changes such as those foreseen for the Italian peninsula over the next 70 years. Our study investigates the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations and links it with the environment and how genetics might evolve over the next 50 years. We used one of the largest national datasets including > 1000 goats from 33 populations across the Italian peninsula collected by the Italian Goat Consortium and genotyped with over 50 k markers. Our results showed that Italian goats can be discriminated in three groups reflective of the Italian geography and its geo-political situation prec…

Conservatism and novelty in the genetic architecture of adaptation in Heliconius butterflies.

2015

Understanding the genetic architecture of adaptive traits has been at the centre of modern evolutionary biology since Fisher; however, evaluating how the genetic architecture of ecologically important traits influences their diversification has been hampered by the scarcity of empirical data. Now, high-throughput genomics facilitates the detailed exploration of variation in the genome-to-phenotype map among closely related taxa. Here, we investigate the evolution of wing pattern diversity in Heliconius, a clade of neotropical butterflies that have undergone an adaptive radiation for wing-pattern mimicry and are influenced by distinct selection regimes. Using crosses between natural wing-pat…

Development and first application of the athlete adaptation inventory: An exploratory study

2020

Geographic mobility has become an essential part of athletes’ career development and athletic migration is rapidly increasing. However, research on psychological aspects of athletes’ transnational mobility is lacking in the literature. In this study we describe the development of the Athlete Adaptation Inventory (AAI) and examine its first application in a sample of 143 professional and amateur elite migrant athletes. In summary, results indicate that cultural adaptation challenges were perceived as slightly difficult. However, female athletes reported more difficulties than male athletes in the sport domain, whereas male and team sport athletes reported more challenges in the non-sport dom…

Adaptation to Floods in Riga, Latvia: Historical Experience and Change of Approaches

2013

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATVIA:AN IMPACT ASSESSMENT

2019

This paper is based on empirical research and an analysis of individual cases of opportunities, which are provided or limited by climate adaptation in rural development in Latvia. The empirical research focuses on adaptation to climate changes, based on previous studies, scientific knowledge and approved theories of climate change adaptation in sector policies and updates of them in Latvia. The research includes an analysis of policy documentation on integration of targets and principles of climate change adaptation in the context of environmental policy and environmental management, focusing on the importance of use of farming and the environmental sector’s environmental communication mean…

Past as Future in Adaptive Buildings: Climatic Adaptation in Ancient Constructions

2018

Increasingly today we talk about sustainable architecture or, better yet, about adaptive architecture as something innovative. Looking at the past, however, it is possible to find numerous examples of architecture that adapts to the climatic conditions of the place with special devices or natural materials. Starting from the ancient Romans and the ancient peoples of the Middle East, up to the newer system to create energy by exploiting natural resources, are various the adaptive systems of the past. All have in common the respect for the environment, communicating with it sustainably, and optimizing available resources. This paper focuses on some of these systems highlighting the merits.

Living with climate change: avoiding conflict through adaptation in Malawi

2015

Abstract. In recent years, research on climate change and human security has received much attention among policy makers and academia alike. Communities in the Global South that rely on an intact resource base will especially be affected by predicted changes in temperature and precipitation. The objective of this article is to better understand under what conditions local communities can adapt to anticipated impacts of climate change and avoid conflict over the loss of resources. The empirical part of the paper answers the question to what extent local communities in the Chilwa Basin in Malawi have experienced climate change and how they are affected by it. Further, it assesses one of Malaw…

Age-Related Changes in Predictive Capacity Versus Internal Model Adaptability: Electrophysiological Evidence that Individual Differences Outweigh Eff…

2015

Hierarchical predictive coding has been identified as a possible unifying principle of brain function, and recent work in cognitive neuroscience has examined how it may be affected by age related changes. Using language comprehension as a test case, the present study aimed to dissociate age-related changes in prediction generation versus internal model adaptation following a prediction error. Event related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured in a group of older adults (60-81 years; n = 40) as they read sentences of the form "The opposite of black is white/yellow/nice." Replicating previous work in young adults, results showed a target related P300 for the expected antonym ("white"; an eff…

Morpho-physiological and adaptive variation of Italian germplasm of sulla (Hedysarum coronarium L.)

2014

Sulla is a biennial forage legume native to the central-western Mediterranean Basin and has increasing interest for regions with Mediterranean-climate. The Italian germplasm is a reservoir of variation for important agronomic traits. This study aimed to support breeding programs by investigating patterns of agronomic, adaptive and morpho-physiological variation among ecotypes collected from the three main Italian regions of species cultivation: central Italy, and the two islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Forage yield and morpho-physiological traits were evaluated at a site with Mediterranean climate in Sicily. Forage yield and cold tolerance in a cold-prone site of northern Italy were also as…

Effectiveness of interventions to prevent pre-frailty and frailty progression in older adults: a systematic review

2018

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the best available evidence regarding the effectiveness of interventions for preventing frailty progression in older adults. INTRODUCTION: Frailty is an age-related state of decreased physiological reserves characterized by an increased risk of poor clinical outcomes. Evidence supporting the malleability of frailty, its prevention and treatment, has been presented. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review considered studies on older adults aged 65 and over, explicitly identified as pre-frail or frail, who had been undergoing interventions focusing on the prevention of frailty progression. Participants selected on the basis of specific illness or with a terminal diagnosis were …